After being lulled into a strange bliss like state whilst singing f.f.f fish I started to wonder about the guy behind the song. His name is A.J. Jenkins and he’s been described as ‘The Jack Johnson of childrens music’. His music is simple, melodic and lovely. His voice and lyrics have honesty and meaning and seem to have a calming effect on my children.
Try as I might, I can’t find anything on this guy which is strange, because these days via Google and various online channels I can usually access intimate details of anybody from my postman to the local cornershop lady.

A.J. Jenkins is like the J.R Hartley of the phonic world, all secretive and hard to track down, an international man of mystery. Maybe the phonic scene is strictly underground. Word of mouth, under the counter, secret handshakes.
I’m surprised that someone with all this phonic goodness on offer is lying so low especially in a world were everyone is trying their up most to have profile. You wouldn’t catch Mr Tumble with no online visibility.

There’s a very simple website http://www.kidstv123.com/ where you can buy songs by A.J. Jenkins. But he certainly doesn’t seem to be cashing in on the huge popularity of his phonic goodness. I think that’s what makes this guy even more special. Not only does he compose lovely educational songs for our children, he’s got enough integrity not to try to squeeze every ounce of cash out of the phonic phenomenon. It’s really quite a lovely thing in a world of over promoted everything. Where are children are usually bombarded with the message ‘buy, buy, buy!’

I imagine A.J. Jenkins as a 60’s counter-culture hippy living in San-Fransico in an eco-friendly house in the hills. Spending his days strumming guitar in search of the perfect riff to accompany new Phonic themed songs.

Perhaps he’s a retired pop star, a real hell razor during his day. His wild nights of trashing hotel rooms and a different groupie in every city are over. He’s now a stay at home dad getting personal satisfaction from his anonymous phonic work.

Or maybe he’s a corporate banker trapped in the cycle of money and materialism. He only stays in his stressful, uninspiring city job to give his family the sort of life that they’ve become accustomed to. His wife has an expensive addiction to Jimmy Choos and kids at top private schools. His only escape is his double life as the Phonic master. Late at night when everyone’s asleep, he creeps into his office and secretly pens phonic melodys. It’s his only form of escapism and he doesn’t know what he would do without it.

Of course I’m having a little joke here (my partner didn’t realise this when I just read the last few sentences, ‘you don’t really think his wife has a Jimmy Choo addiction do you?, I think you’re missing the essence of A.J. Jenkins’.

But I do love the fact that this guy keeps a low profile and lets his music do the talking and wow, think how many kids throughout the world he’s touched (phonic song 1 has over 65 million hits on youtube and phonic song 2 over 157 million. People would kill for that many hits and most would cash in. What an amazing guy!). I’ve gotta take my hat off to him. Respect is due sir.

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17 thoughts on “PHONIC SONG”

Fantastic , I can’t wait to share the joy I A.J Jenkins in my office , I know he’ll be a big hit with all my early years people ! We will be singing along and spreading his phonic wisdom ! I love the way that he sensitively points out ‘there’s so many things to learn’ for all the little ones this is so true ..a big world full of letters and strange sounds … Mmmm monkey being my fav , especially when Rose and Theo sing along !! .. Now I want to learn who is he ?? I think youve started a phenomenon though , I wonder if it’s ok to be a grown up groupie 🙂

The Wikipedia article you cited has been deleted, because nothing in it was verifiable. Jenkins really does keep a low profile, especially for a performer. I find it most interesting that, as we peruse YouTube with the kids, we almost never see an advertisement before a KidsTV123 video. That’s an easy revenue opportunity he specifically declined. It’s all about the music and learning for him. I bought his albums on Amazon to show my support.

I happened to Google “Who is AJ Jenkins phonics song” and landed here! I was hoping to find a picture, a show near your and poof! This is an awesome – I am not alone! My 20 month old has learned so much from the albums I’ve downloaded from the 123 kids site. We love AJ!!

I love his songs. I had read to my daughter as a baby, sand nursery rhymes, the usual stuff to encourage her speach yet nothing was really clear. Found his phonics online and she sings away and sounds all the letters. I also sing along and we do the shape song, numbers, colours, days of the week etc. I read somewhere he was french but he sounds English to me. He maybe someone quite famous who uses an alias x

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He seems to be Australian to me (is that really him commenting up there?! I feel like a school girl with a crush…but I’m a grown woman with an 18 month old! =) ) because he references wombats, the coral song, etc… my children didn’t even know what coral was until that song! Very Canadian over here…
His songs are one of the few things I encourage my daughter to watch on the television; it’s also the very first and almost only thing that will actually keep her attention on the tele…and his videos have been a wonderful tool for when she’s sick…they are calming and I have reason to believe that they will be a staple in our house for years to come! Thank you AJ Jenkins for giving me the opportunity to find quality, simple and beautiful music for my daughter…she cherishes every moment and I would be lying if I said that kidstv123 songs weren’t in my head on a regular basis…and I don’t get tired of them!
(Not aiming to brag, though let’s be honest, it will come off that way anyways lol) – my daughter had over 100 words in her vocabulary by 15 months (we lost count after 70) and I largely credit that to the media we’ve chosen to expose her to…namely, AJ Jenkins.
Love that on top of it all, he is humble and authentic and not pushy about selling his stuff…it makes me want to buy it even more! Thank you thank you thank you AJ Jenkins for being an inspiration!